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Can't touch it, see it
But you can always feel it
The greatest things you'll ever know
Are invisible"Leave the drawstring alone, it's supposed to sit like that..." The grey wolf said, futzing over Geri's attire.
The black wolf was more put together than usual. His attire was unwrinkled, new, without patches, or the typical wear and tear of his more common clothes. He wriggled uncomfortably in the doting from Mogrim's paws.
His fur too was fluffier, brushed, and more well kept. Though Geri was good about keeping himself 'clean,' he typically did not bother with making himself prettied up. His fur was, more often than not, scraggly and askew.
A part of being a werewolf he had grown accustomed to, was that wearing pretty things and fluffing up the coat was useless. Anything you wore was probably gonna get ruined, and any styling you did with your fur would come apart and look worse for it.
Geri felt out of sorts being dolled up like this, even though it was just a brushing of the coat, and a new pair of pants, suspenders, and off-white tunic.
"The moment this over, I am fuckin' changin'..." He growled, the graveliness in his voice more apparent in contrast with the other male wolf's.
Mogrim's eyebrow raised as he continued to work, giving Geri a skeptical, questioning, and somewhat concerned expression.
"Not like that!" Geri snapped. "I mean the- the goddam clothes! Not- fuckin- werewolf shit."
The grey wolf's expression relaxed into a patient but understanding view.
"Well, maybe you should wait until you're back inside." He responded kindly, the smallest hint of sarcasm present. "Typically naked wolves running around doesn't sit very well at these sorts of events..."
Geri ignored him, and began fussing with the drawstring on his tunic again, before Mogrim patiently pushed the black wolf's hand away once more.
A few more minutes went by in silence. The farmhouse's wood creaking in the light wind, settling the old bones of the home into place. The autumn air was beginning its first chills of the season, flexing the wood in new ways with gentle groans here and there. The fire in the hearth crackled lightly as Geri's friend did his best to make the wolf look presentable.
Mogrim himself was in a much more dapper appearance ironically. Though the fellow canid could be just as crass as Geri, he apparently cleaned up far better. Which seemed backwards to him, based on the occasion. His dark green coat only just covered his lighter button down shirt beneath. A flamboyant shell to cover more comfortable clothes for the activities later in the night.
Finally, the wolf patted Geri's shoulders as he finished his last touches.
"Okay! How are you feeling?" He asked with a relieved sigh.
"I took a double potion today, and it's a new moon, so I think I'm gonna be alright."
"Alright, that's good... But I mean how are you feeling?"
Geri paused, thinking, unsure of what to say.
"You know it's okay to be nervous about these things, right?" Mogrim continued.
"Right..." The werewolf sighed.
"Don't get all 'self-pitying' on me now. He knows what he's getting into."
"Well, he ain't seen, y'know, the worst of everything yet..." Geri said, averting his gaze. His eyes traveled across the burning logs in the hearth, as if there were some interesting pattern within.
"Mikhail might not be... The most 'booksmart' tiger out there Geri, but he's not stupid." Mogrim retorted, his arms crossing in front of his chest. "He understands what you are, and more importantly, who you are... And you both love each other, right?"
"'Course I do!" Geri snarled, looking back at his friend, daring Mogrim to contradict him.
Mogrim didn't flinch, rather used to Geri's little outbursts and snappy nature.
"Then respect him enough to believe he understands what and who you are. He's earned that."
The black wolf averted his gaze again, eyes flitting back to the fire.
"You're going to take care of him, and he's going to take care of you..." Mogrim continued. "'By the light of the Lunar Lady,' or whatever it is you people say..."
That got a grin out of Geri. "Fuck you." He said with a toothy chuckle.
Geri looked down and fiddled with the drawstring on his tunic again.
The grey wolf winced, but seemed to accept that Geri was going to do what he was going to do with that drawstring, and he wasn't going to be able to stop him. He looked out towards the window in the kitchen, beyond it.
"Alright," Mogrim said. "I'm going to go out there, they're probably ready for ya. Knowing Mikhail he's... Probably not as nervous as you are, but... Don't feel like you're being rushed out there. Nobody's gonna start this thing without you..."
Geri nodded, and faced towards the hearth as Mogrim stepped out the back door of the kitchen. The wolf heard the screen door slam shut as he was finally left alone for a moment.
He breathed. He waited. He felt his own body, as if scanning himself head to toe. It had become a small internal ritual, something he idly did when he was nervous, or when he felt like he could lose control. Once upon a time, he was in a constant state of near-change. Years in the forests and wildlands of the sword coast roaming as a barely-controlled werewolf made him hyper-paranoid of any red flags in his own body. But tonight, the ringing in his ears was minimal, his spine was not tensing, his hackles remained low. He was okay.
The wolf thought about the last year and a half, he'd had with Mikhail. It had truly been the best months of his life. Denying that was simply ignorant and stupid. A part of his mind told him to worry again, that he would hurt this tiger he loved so much. But there was time for that, time before this, when the two of them hated each other. Time when he did try and hurt Mikhail... And the tiger bared it. He bared it all.
Geri realized that he could never want to hurt Mikhail again, ever. And even if he did, he didn't think he could. He might not be a lycanthrope, but the tiger was tough as nails. And if that isn't a factor to worry about, then there really isn't anything stopping him from doing this. He was ready.
"Is the bola too much Ma? I don't wanna go an' make him feel bad, y'know how he is with dressin' an' all." Mikhail worried aloud, fiddling with the bola tie around his neck. The fanged necklace Geri had given him rested on the table under the torch of the front deck.
The old tigress sat in one of the rocking chairs, the smaller of the two, looking at her son with a gentle smile, and soft eyes.
"Lil' pumpkin, I think he's gonna be happy with whatever you might be or might not be wearin'." Mila laughed lightly with her gentle drawl.
Mikhail eyed the fanged necklace, and in a spur of the moment decision, pulled off the bola tie and grabbed it off the table. "I think this'll be better. Right? Means more? Fuck."
The tiger eyed Ewern, his wood elf of a friend, who stood at the foot of the front steps, grinning a bit too much, but nodding agreeably.
In Mikhail's mind It felt like there was some private joke that was going on between Ewern and his mother. An anger boiled up in him at the thought of the imagined slight. But before he could really snap at his friend, Mila stood up, and began walking over to her son.
The reaction was almost instant. Ewern and Mikhail both stepped forward with concern, wanting to make sure the aged tigress was okay and balanced on her own. The fall from a few months back still lingered in Mikhail's mind.
But Mila raised a paw, with a patient but stern look in her eye. "I'm a big girl, and iffin' I need help, I'll ask for it." She said gently, with a smile.
Both Ewern and Mikhail backed off slightly. Though Mila followed her son, stepping right up to him. Though he was a good 2 feet taller than his mother, his ears went down like a scorned cub as she approached.
The tigress gently raised her paw to touch Mikhail's chin. The pad of her thumb gently caressed the scar just under her son's right lip.
"Now, you remember how you got this cut lil' pumpkin?" Mila said, her eyes fixed on Mikhail's.
The big tiger's eyes flitted here and there, ready for scorn, but he answered promptly.
"Yes ma'am. Got into a fight with Rolf down the ways when we was cubs."
Mila grinned without showing her teeth as she shook her head. "No... you went an' called him a 'Mangey Tabby' because he was cold and didn't have as thick of fur as you an' Grayson. You remember?"
"Yes ma'am." Mikhail said respectfully. Internally he was extremely confused by this line of discussion. A small part of him worried if her mind was going too, in her age.
"And what did I tell you to go an' do?"
"Go an' use my allowance to buy 'im a coat."
"and... to do more thinkin' before you go actin'."
"Yes ma'am, but what-"
"Don't interrupt your mother. Now, I wanted you to take that to heart well an' good. And for a long time I went and told you that same thing near daily. Looooong time went and I thought you might be goin' deaf to your mother's teachin's. 'Cause you went and acted, and acted, and acted, not thinkin' a single lick along the way."
Mikhail's eyes flitted to Ewern, who had suddenly and conveniently found a constellation in the sky to fixate on while he was being weirdly scolded.
But the tiger's attention was brought back to his mother immediately as he felt a gentle jerk on his chin from his mother's paw.
"But! When your Pa died, you went and surprised me. You started questionin' things, you started worryin' about this, wonderin' about that. And that lead you to this fine boy. And I ain't never seen you so happy as the day you invited him over to ride the horses."
She smiled warmly into her son's face, letting her words sit for a moment.
"Mikhail... You are thinkin' well and good now. And I am so proud of you for that. But for the sake of your mother's hips, you are thinkin' too much right now."
Mila grabbed Mikhail's hand that held the fanged necklace, and pushed it up towards the big tiger's chest.
"This is the one you ought to be wearin' on the day you promise yourself to that boy." She said, giving him a small lick on the nose.
Mikhail smiled at his mother, and gave her a gentle hug.
"Thank you Ma, I love you."
"I love you too lil' pumpkin."
After a moment, she gently pushed herself away from Mikhail's hug, and he let go.
"Now, young man!" She called towards Ewern, who promptly regained his full attention and turned towards the pair of tigers on the porch. "I could use an escort to my seat while my son gets himself ready."
"Yes Madam." Ewern said, as he gracefully took her hand, beginning to lead her around the house towards the barn.
After a moment, the two were out of sight, and Mikhail was left alone there, in front of his family's home. He looked down at the necklace, and quickly put it on. It felt comfortable, an accessory he had grown accustomed to wearing, and now felt naked without.
As he put it on, that comfortable confidence returned to him. He knew Geri wouldn't give a damn what he was wearing, it was just a convenient vent for his insecurities. It would be alright, he was ready to begin his life with Geri, officially.
The tiger's eyes flitted to the night sky as he rested his large paws on the banister of the front porch. Selune wasn't visible tonight, it was a new moon. But now and then her furthest tears still twinkled in the night, and for that, he knew where she was.
He was still very new to this whole religious thing. He'd learned the tenants of the church of Sehanine, and they were quite honestly simple and in line with his beliefs already… So what was there to change? Still, now, in this moment, he wished he had more constructed words for what he wanted to ask of her, and maybe the universe at large. But with no scriptures in his mind, he settled for just being direct.
Quietly, the tiger whispered.
"Help me keep him happy? Please? I don't ever wanna lose that smile ah his." He ended the statement awkwardly, not quite knowing the proper way to end a prayer like this.
To that end he grabbed up a piece of paper he'd had in his inseam and pulled it out to re-read it, memorizing it for the thousandth time. He read it over and over for a good 5 minutes before he was satisfied he could remember the words for tonight.
The tiger took one more look up to where the hidden moon must be resting tonight, knowing the comfort and the pain that it had brought his wolf for years. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked over to his place beside the lines of chairs in front of the barn.
Mikhail had arrived first, well before Geri. But he only had to stay in place a few minutes before his wolf had taken his own spot opposite his.
About 2 and a half dozen chairs were specifically arranged to create two diagonal aisles in the yard, both leading to the same point in front of the barn's large, open door. Mikhail stood at the end of the southern aisle, and Geri stood at the end of the northern Aisle.
As Geri took his place in his aisle, he gave a confident, but also nervous nod to his tiger across the crowd that sat between them.
The persons in the largest pool of chairs, resting between the tiger and the wolf, to Geri's right, and to Mikhail's left, held all of the people that the two of them met together. The connections, and friends that came into their lives at the same time.
To Geri's left, stood a smaller pool of chairs, one with only a handful of individuals Geri knew before Mikhail, who had come to support him on this day. Hobert, from the Bard's Bar, Plink, from the dock ward, And Velkan and Brokk from the Undermountain.
To Mikhail's right, the same, but a larger crowd. All of the Fangmanes sat there, along with several individuals from the tanners guild, and Mikhail's mother Mila.
And finally, where the two aisles met just in front of the barn door, was Ewern, standing in his Clerical regalia of Sehanine Moonbow, Purple and silver cloth adorned with half-moon ornaments with the customary 3 arrows resting upon it.
Music emanated from the barn, strings and keys playing a gentle melody as a queue for the pair to be.
The wolf and the tiger walk their separate paths. Everyone remaining seated, and quiet as they do so. Finally meeting at the end of their own roads in the middle, before Ewern. They took each other's hands, staring back into each other's eyes, as the elf began the ceremonial script.
It was entirely in elvish, as per the custom of such ceremony's under Sehanine. As such, Mikhail did not understand a word of it, whereas Geri took in very meaning diligently. The wolf had explained the words to Mikhail prior to this night, so that he wasn't left in the dark. It was nothing Mikhail could memorize, but something he could agree to.
--
Be it that your devoted and their separate paths be split no more.
That these beams of your light may prosper in unity and prosperity in the forever now, and the forever to come.
Guide such shadows that would dim or sever this beam into ether and the never.
May your dreams be their guidance, that they may continue to serve in your light to the best of their now combined ability.
Let their inner truths be laid bare before one another, that each may know each other's deepest meanings and purpose, and care for such truths as they care for their own.
Let them seize their passions and prosper powerfully within such passions, that their love and joy may bring more of your light into our realm.
And I ask unto thee my Lunar Lady, be gentle with your light upon the hide of your ever dedicated servant, that you moons bring a peaceful light upon your lunar servant, for he is one with your light, and now one with the light of another.
In reverence, and in offering, I ask thee bare witness to the testimony, the passion, and the promise of your two servants before one another, and thus, unto thee.
--
With that, the elf gestured towards Geri first, who was indeed ready to speak, having been the more able to comprehend the timing of the ceremony.
Geri looked up into Mikhail's eyes, still holding firmly onto the tiger's paws, as he spoke his own, self-written vows.
"I vow to always hold you closest to my heart, my soul, of whatever I am, whenever I am. In this life, and in all lives. You're always gonna be mine, and I'm always gonna be yours."
As he finished, Geri lifted his hands, carrying Mikhails along with them, by just a few inches, and leaned his head forward, closing his eyes, his muzzle pointing down towards their interlaced handpaws.
At that, without moving, Mikhail looks down at Geri's bowed head, and begins his own vows.
"You're everythin' I'm missin', an' everythin' I hope to be. I vow to do my best to live up to what I hope to be for you. In this life, and in all lives. You're always gonna be mine, and I'm always gonna be yours."
As he finished, Mikhail returned Geri's gesture, bowing his head down, until both their foreheads and muzzles were touching one another. They both leaned into each other's weight just slightly.
And as the pair grew still, so did the crowd of people. Everyone bowing their heads, closing their eyes. Even Ewern, who had stepped to the side, bowed his head, and allowed the two to remain bathed in the barn's torchlight alone, as their individual lights became one.
A few moments passed, though they lingered for what felt like minutes. When finally, seemingly signaled by some invisible force, both Geri and Mikhail raised their heads, opening their eyes so that the first thing they see is one another's face. As teal and orange peered into one another, for the first time as husbands, they both leaned in, closing their eyes once more, and kissed.
Geri and Mikhail were a pair of fellas I played as in a Dungeon of the Mad Mage dnd game streamed live on twitch! I am currently running an epilogue campaign with the party, and as such won't be a focus of the story for much longer now, as we prepare for them to depart the campaign. So come by and watch sometime! We're live 8:15pm ET most Thursdays! Look for us at The Glory Role
Also! If you wanna get involved with The Glory Role community, we have a public discord now! https://discord.gg/F6aNrBMRuC
Art & Geri / Mikhail ©
VellumYou can also find Alt. versions of this piece on my patreon! There are Nude, Half-Dressed, & Loincloth versions over there!
https://www.patreon.com/vellum
https://www.patreon.com/vellum
https://www.patreon.com/vellumChronological progression of canon Geri/Mikhail art<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>
Category Artwork (Digital) / All
Species Tiger
Size 1200 x 1600px
File Size 2.92 MB
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